Microsoft Viva Connections Home - The Entry Point for the Employee Experience

Hi MichaelGannotti,

long-time viewer, first-time commenter on one of your content pieces. Really appreciate what you're doing to spread the word on what can be achieved with standard Microsoft solutions.

Regarding this video, I have one question and hope that you can maybe shed some light on it: Microsoft is trying to position Viva Connections as the entryway to the employee experience. For my company and for every company that I have at least some insight into, the intranet is the entryway to the employee experience.

The intranet is where you see your news and where you have quick access to all the resources that you need for your work and for your career. Behind that there are whole intranet organizations. There are the product owners - sometimes even multiple ones for the business and IT side. There are the intranet teams - comprised of different departments, stakeholders and content owners. There are dedicated intranet budgets and processes. There is a whole lot of work going into building intranets and keeping them aligned to the specific needs of each company (especially the intranet homepage). There is a whole lot of work going into communicating and positioning the intranet as the starting point for each employee. The intranet I feel is the internal flagship. 

Where does Microsoft think Viva Connections fits into this landscape? Does Microsoft really think that companies will now choose as entryway to the employee experience the one-size-fits-all intranet lite Viva Home experience over the intranet experiences that they have invested heavily into and adapted to their own specific needs? Even if - and that is a very big IF - companies decide to fully invest into Viva Suite licenses, I feel like the Viva Home experience would still be a poor choice as the starting point for the employees seeing that you can do the same and a whole lot more with an intranet homepage.

I would love to hear your perspective on that.